Make new work possible.
Jaemi Theatre Company is a Maryland nonprofit pursuing 501(c)(3) status. Your contribution supports new API playwrights, accessible programming, and the future of API performance in the DMV.
An API-led performance initiative based in Washington, DC.
Jaemi Theatre Company develops and produces API centered new work in the DMV area through readings, community partnerships, and a pathway toward full productions.
We envision performance as a shared civic space where API diaspora can create, belong, and be seen on new terms.
재미 — Korean for fun.
在美 — Sino-Korean for to live in America, and to live in beauty.
Jaemi Theatre Company was founded in 2025 by Youri Kim and Juyoung Koh. Despite DC being one of the largest theater markets in the country, no company was specifically API-led. Jaemi was built to close that gap: to develop and stage interdisciplinary new work rooted in diasporic imagination and radical storytelling.
Our inaugural production, BAAL, premiered as a staged reading at the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival in March 2026 to a near-capacity audience.
A body horror drama set in a dystopian city where the air is toxic and birth is outlawed. In the city of Baal, citizens are forced into an impossible choice: terminate or sacrifice a family member. The play uses the language of biological mutation and bodily control to examine how systems of power decide who gets to exist and on what terms.
Written by Youri Kim
Directed by Theo Yu
Cast of seven · Original sound design
A new play development program pairing playwrights from selected Asian countries with API playwrights based in DC for a workshop development process.
To be confirmedJaemi Theatre Company is a Maryland nonprofit pursuing 501(c)(3) status. Your contribution supports new API playwrights, accessible programming, and the future of API performance in the DMV.
